Graduate Programs

Internship Spotlight: David Hellberg/Interscope Geffen A&M

By

Lesley Mahoney

March 30, 2009

Chelsea Cloud '06 is indie marketing coordinator for Interscope Geffen A&M, where she supervises intern David Hellberg. "You just really have to love it," she says of the music industry. "You have to have a thick skin and want to do it for yourself and for no other reason. If not, you won't make it."

David Hellberg, a music business/management major and voice principal from Stockholm, Sweden, is an intern at Interscope Geffen A&M, a major label representing such artists as U2, All-American Rejects, 50 Cent, and White Lies. He works for Chelsea Cloud '06, indie marketing coordinator for the label, whose job includes organizing artist events in record and book stores. Originally from Los Angeles, Cloud herself interned for an A&R representative at Geffen and at Big Fish Media through Berklee's Major Specific Internship.

Some of Hellberg's responsibilities:

In preparation for weekly meetings, Hellberg assembles SoundScan data that tracks radio play and sales data for the label's artists; mails out tickets and wristbands for representatives running artist events throughout the country; sorts through demo CDs for promising artists; and updates artists' tour schedules for the marketing manager.

Hellberg on working for a major label:

"It's been exciting to get right into it. It really feels like you can be part of the industry because they have such huge acts. It's exactly what I was looking for in an internship, to get a feel for a larger corporate environment. You get to form some kind of bond with the artists, even if you haven't met them. It gives me a feel for how a big corporation works, and how they handle things. If you need something, there's always someone you can go to, because everything is so specialized. My experience in L.A. is everything I expected it would be in terms of being thrown into the music industry. L.A. is pretty much the heart of that."

On the L.A. classes:

"My business class [Current Issues in the Music Industry] has been great. [Guest Lecturer] Ben Laski [a lawyer with his his own artist management firm, Sonic Management] has a lot of contacts in the business and we have guest speakers that have been great. It's very up-to-date and relevant information."

Cloud on the value of Berklee interns:

"I know they'll understand my lingo and a lot of things I'm talking about. David hit the ground running. If he has a question, he's not afraid to ask. He's learning how to read radio charts and sales for all of our artists. We'll compare sales and radio for a week in comparison to the events that we do. He's running all those reports and putting them together."